Anfield Until The End 17/18

Champions League Charge: Group Stages Draw

I did say I was going to put predominantly old pictures of CL matches here, may even put up a current CL campaign picture too, but this is absolutely awesome. Football photographers really know how to capture a picture. 

Anyways, today we are going to be in the group stages! We've made it past the wonderful Hoffenheim, who gave us quite the showing home and away, despite what the 6-3 aggregate score does say. They'll be going to Europa League, so don't worry about them not getting Europe after this. 

Now, we see who we can get in our Champions League draw. 

To start, it can't be another English club. So, if you were hoping for us to knock Manchester United into Europa in a hot second, not happening. Same with, Tottenham, Chelsea, and Manchester City. We also cannot be in the same group as someone in our Pot. We're in Pot 3, so we can't be in the same group as Napoli, Tottenham (coincidentally), FC Basel, Olympiacos, Anderlecht, AS Roma and Besiktas. Not the most threatening teams in CL, but nice to have some people out of the way quickly. 

After those two exceptions, everyone else is fair game. We could literally be drawn into the "Group of Death" with Juventus, Barcelona and RB Leipzig. Or Real Madrid, PSG and . . . RB Leipzig. They're basically the only good team in Pot 4, RB Leipzig. But you get my drift, it could go south fairly quickly. But don't be sad so quickly. With our pretty good fortune in Europe, we could also be placed in a group with Benfica (sorry if you rate them, Portugal isn't the best to me), Sevilla and APOEL. The funniest thing about this, we could go into the so called "Group of Death" and end up the top of that group. Oh, Liverpool, messing with logic like that. 

Now, to the real draws. 

From Pot One, in our Group E is . . . Spartak Moskva! I . . . don't know much of anything on these guys. They're Russian, I know that. They also must be a good enough Russian team if they're here, that's another thing. So I don't expect a whole lot from this draw other than a draw or win and leaving it at that. They'll come to play football because it's CL, but the quality of their play is what will determine the difference.

From Pot Two . . . Sevilla! Let the hissing commence! (But not seriously. Let's not actually do this, as we don't want to be one of those fans.) With our last meeting being that horrid night in Basel, it'll be on our minds to have a bit of revenge. Maybe send them down to the Europa League or something? They'll be ready to play and so will we, so this will be a draw to watch,

And finally, from Pot Four is . . . Maribor! Man, Europe is a nice way to learn about places. Because it sounds like a smoke brand more than anything. But with a quick Google search, you can find that they're in Slovenia, which is wonderful. Being from this area, I feel like they'll have that sense to really play, like Spartak, but I also don't know how they play, so this will be a toss up too. Plus, it's close to Croatia and Serbia, so some of our guys will enjoy this one.

As you can see, we were one of the lucky ones. Tottenham, on the other hand, did not fair as well and you can add Chelsea to this list depending on your views of that group. So it will certainly not be a walk in the park, but not being top of the group or at least very close to it would be a real miss for us. Our first match in CL proper is against Sevilla at Anfield on Wednesday, September 13! Let's enjoy the glory!

Good day/night, Reds!